Expect great things from the WNBA this season

Was this the gayest weekend ever, or what? Last night gays everywhere gathered around their TVs to watch the Tony Awards, and on the Saturday-side of things, 60,000 lesbians crowded into arenas for WNBA opening day.

I kind of feel like today should be a gay national holiday, just so we can rest. Of course, we probably don’t need it as much as the Atlanta Dream, who won their opener over the Indiana Fever in double overtime Saturday night, and then turned around and fell to the Mystics by six points only 12 hours later.

How good is it to see Chamique Holdsclaw in a WNBA jersey again? Yesterday, she became the ninth WNBA player to score a 4,000 career points.

While Holdsclaw’s return and Atlanta’s last-minute victory made for good press, one of the best stories of the weekend was the stellar play by this season’s crop of rookies. DeWanna Bonner (Phoenix), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta), Marissa Coleman (Washington) and Renee Montgomery (Minnesota) were all instrumental in their team’s victories on Saturday. And all besides McCoughtry did it off the bench.

WNBA Opening Weekend superlatives line up like this:

Player of Opening Weekend: Seattle’s Aussie superstar, Lauren Jackson, who scored an unstoppable 48 points in two games. Putting it succinctly to the Associated Press, Jackson said, “It was awesome.”

Worst Luck on Opening Weekend: The Detroit Shock. Already down Cheryl Ford due to knee injury and Kara Braxton for DUI suspension, the Shock lost Plenette Pierson on Saturday after she re-injured her shoulder in a loose-ball scuffle with Tina Thompson. Plus they’ve got to play the Sparks again tonight after getting reamed by them on national television two days ago.

Most Unnecessary Tweet on Opening Weekend:Rebecca Lobo, who was at the Staples Center with the Sparks: “Candace is a nursing mom. Her daughter nurses every 2 hours which means CP3 hasn’t slept longer than that in 4 weeks.”

Best Tweet on Opening Weekend:Candice Wiggins: “Well considering I’ve ended up in the hospital every time we’ve played indy, just surviving this game is the real victory for me.”

Most Necessary Evil on Opening Weekend: The new Sparks jersey, brought to you by Farmers Insurance Group.